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Tohe PAN AME:RICAN UNION 

JOHN BARRETT : : Director General 
1 FRANCISCO J. YANES : Assistant Director 



RICE IN THE AMERICAS 



Reprinted from the February, 1917, issue 
of the Bulletin of the Pan American Union 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1917 






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PERHAPS the greatest event in the history of man's gradual 
evolution from the lower orders of animal forms to his 
present status occurred at the psychological moment when, 
doubtless through sheer accident, he discovered that the 
application of fire to his food made it more palatable. It may 
have been a piece of raw flesh inadvertently dropped into the 
hot coals of the fire whose warmth gave him the agreeable sen- 
sation he desired, or it may have been some accidentally roasted 
nuts that first gave him the idea; at any rate, he discovered that 
the roasted food tasted better than the raw, and that was all that 
was necessary. With that discovery the art of cookery was born. 
That cooked food is also better adapted to his nourishment is a 
matter that subsequent ages of experiment and observation may or 
may not have established. The inducement that led liomo sajnens to 
cook the things he ate was that the process made them more delectable 
to his more or less discriminating palate, a fact that also led to con- 
tinued experiment to add to his supply of edibles. 

Among the various natural food products that were thus improved 
from a gustatory viewpoint were the cereals. It was because cooking 
in various ways improved the taste of grains of wheat, oats, barley, 
millet, maize, and rice that these cereals eventually became the most 
generally used and widely distributed of foods. Among these per- 
haps the most important, if we consider the numerical proportion of 
people who make it their chief diet, is rice, which is said to be the 
principal food of nearly one-third of the human race. 

Just when rice first came into use as an important food staple is not 
known, nor has its place of origin been satisfactorily determined, for 
its use and culture antedate our written records. That it was culti- 
vated and formed one of the chief food products of China as early as 
2,800 years B. C. is pretty well established. A ceremonial ordinance 
promulgated at that time by the Emperor Chin-nung provided that 
the rice seed used in the ceremony must be sown by the Emperor him- 
self, the four other cereals — presumably of less importance — could be 
sown by other members of the royal family. This being the earhest 

By Edward Albes, of Pan American Union staff. 

2 D. Of D. 

JUL 23 1917 



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4 EICE IN" THE AMERICAS. 

reliable account of the cultivation of rice, Alphonse de Condolle, in 
his "Origin of Cultivated Plants," gives China as its probable place of 
origin, notwithstanding the fact that it is also indigenous in some 
parts of India and in the northern or tropical section of Australia. 

While this is doubtless true as to the generally known cultivated 
species of rice botanically known as Oryza saliva, there is another 
genus, Zizania aquatica, commonly called ''wild rice," which is 
indigenous to North America, where it grows abundantly in many 
regions east of the Rocky Mountains from latitude 50° north down 
to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. The same species is reported to 
have been found native in eastern Siberia, and plentifully in eastern 
China and in Japan. According to some Brazilian authorities it is 
also found in that country. 

This wild rice was, and still is in some sections, an important ele- 
ment in the domestic economy of various Indian tribes of the North 
American continent. The name given it by the Algonquian Indians 
was mano'min, meaning "good fruit," and one of the important 
tribes of the Algonquian linguistic stock took its name, "Menomini," 
from the plant. Its use as a food, methods of gathering, harvesting, 
thrashing, preservation, and final preparation for consumption among 
the various Indian tribes have been exhaustively studied by Dr 
Albert Ernest Jenks, and the results of his investigations published 
in an extended memoir entitled "The Wild Rice Gatherers of the 
Upper Lakes," in the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology. The following descriptions are taken from this 
work: I 

The genus Zizania comprises two species, and is well characterized 
by the unisexual spikelets in an androgynous panicle, each having 
two glumes, and the males having two stamens. The plant ordi- 
narily grows from 5 to 10 feet high, with a thick, spongy stem and 
an abundance of long, broad leaves. The chief mark of distinction 
between the two species is that the miliacea bears its male and female 
flowers intermixed on its fruit head, while the aquatica bears its female 
flowers near the top, where the cyhndrical panicle, from 1 to 2 feet long, 
is quite appressed, and its male flowers on the more widely spread lower 
branches of the panicle. The glumes or husks of the female or fertile 
flowers are about an inch long and are armed with an awn or beard 
usually of about the same length as the husk, but at times twice its 
length. The grain, which is inclosed within the glumes, is a slender, 
cylindrical kernel, varying in length from almost half an inch to 
nearly an inch, and is of dark-slate color when ripe. The plant is an 
annual, and grows in either fresh or brackish waters from a bed of 
mud alluvium. 

Wild rice is one of the most beautiful aquatic single-stem plants 
in America. The grain is shed into the water when it ripens in the 




Courtesy of the Burouu of AiiiLTican Ethnology. 

CONTRIVANCE OF THE INDIANS FOR PREPARING WILD RICE. 

Upper: Section of drying rack used by various Indian tribes of the wild-rice country to cure the grain 
after its collection from the fields. "A scafl'olding of small poles is erected to a height of about 3 feet; 
this is covered with thin cedar slabs, upon which the grain is spread, and a slow fire is kept burning 
imderneath until the kernels have become thoroughly dried. Lower: A stave-lined thrashing hole 
for treading out the grain. A hole about 2 feet in diarrieter and IS inches deep is dug in the earth and 
lined with handmade staves on the sides, the bottom being covered with a block of wood. The 
husk-covered rice grains as they come from the stalk arc placed into the hole until it is nearly full, 
when the Indian steps in and treads on the grain until the husks are loosened and separated from the 
kernels. The poles are stuck into the earth merely to serve as an aid to balance the thrasher. 



6 KICE IN THE AMEEICAS. 

autumn, and lies in the soft ooze of alluvial mud at the bottom of a 
lake or river until spring, when it germinates and grows rapidly to 
the surface. The old stalks die down below the surface of the water 
before the time arrives for the new ones to appear, so the inference 
has been that they all come from the same root; but the plant is an 
annual, growing from new seed each year. Early in June the shoot 
appears at the surface of the water and at once begins to prepare its 
fruit head. The plant blossoms late in June, and by September the 
seeds are mature. The fruit heads are mostly of a pale-green color 
tinged with yellow, but at maturity they generally acquire a cast of 
purple. Rice beds have been described as resembhng fields of wheat, 
of canebrake, and of maize. At maturity the stalks range from 2 to 
12 feet in height above the water, and they also vary much in thick- 
ness. Their total length depends largely on the depth of the water 
in which they grow, as well as on the fertility of the soil. 

By the middle of July the stalks are generally about 8 feet high. 
At that time from the center of each stalk a long slender shoot grows 
to the height of about 4 feet above the topmost leaf. This shoot bears 
the fruit head. The stalk grows an inch or more in diameter, and to 
the height of 10 or 12 feet above water. It grows to this, its greatest 
height, in water about 1 foot in depth, but it will grow and mature in 
water as much as 8 feet in depth, in which case it rises about 4 feet 
above the surface. The roots are so strong and matted that they 
will support the weight of a man walking upon the mass in shallow 
water. 

~" The grain is matured by the latter part of August or in September. 
Shortly before that time the Indian women often go to these wild rice 
fields in their canoes and tie the standing stalks into small bunches. 
When the grain is sufficiently mature, two persons, generally women, 
go together into the fields to garner the seed. The stalks are usually 
so close together in the harvest field that it is impossible to use a 
paddle, so the canoe is pushed along by a pole. As the harvesters 
pass slowly through the rice, standing 4 or 5 feet above the water, one 
of the women reaches out and, by means of a stick bent in the shape 
of a sickle or hook, pulls a quantity of the stalks down over the side 
of the canoe. Then with another stick held in her free hand she beats 
the fruit heads, thus knocking the grain into the bottom of the canoe 
whereon a blanket is usually spread to catch it. In this way the 
grain on both sides of the path is gathered. When one end of the 
canoe is full, the laborers exchange implements, and the other end of 
the canoe is filled on the return trip to the shore. The grain is then 
taken out, dried or cured, its tenacious huU is thrashed off, and, after 
being winnowed, it is stored away for future use^' 

As to the nutritive qualities of wild rice. Dr. Jenks states that an 
analysis shows " that wild rice is more nutritious than the other native 




Courtesy of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

WILD-RICE KERNELS AFTER THRASHING AND WINNOWING. 

The edible part of wild rice is a slender cylindrical kernel, varying in length from half an inch to nearly 
an inch, and is of a dark slate color when ripe. As a food it is very nutritious, perhaps even more so 
than the cultivated species which forms such an important element in the world's domestic economy. 
It is .said to he richer in carbohydrates, the fat and heat producin;; iniits, than any of the connnonly 
used cereals. Among many of the northern tribes of Indians in the I'nited Slates and Canada it has 
been a favorite food for many centuries, being prepared for consumption in many ways. Dr. Jcnks 
writes of it in this connection: "When it is cooked like oatmeal twice as much boiling water is used. 
The grain cooked in this manner may be warmed over, and its llavor and wholesomeness in no way 
impaired. In cooking it swells probably a little less than commercial rice, but a coflee-cup full, 
measured before cooking, will furnish a meal for two Indians, or sufficient lireakfast food for S or 10 
persons. The grain is especially wholesome as a breakfast food served with sugar and cream; and 
when treated in any way with wild game, whether as a dressing, in soups, or stews, or as a side dish 
dressed with the juices of the game, it is at its best and is delicious and wholesome."' 



8 RICE IN" THE AMERICAS. 

foods to which the wild rice producing Indians had access — viz, maize, 
green corn, corn meal, white hominy, strawberries, whortleberries, 
sturgeon, brook trout, and dried beef. It also shows that it is more 
nutritious than any of our common cereals, as oats, barley, wheat, 
rye, cultivated rice, and maize." 

This kind of rice, therefore, indigenous to North America, and 
utihzed by the Indians long before the advent of the white man, has 
been a staple food for centuries. Having thus briefly disposed of the 
wild relative of Oriza sativa, we may now take up the cultivated and 
better known species. 

The culture of this species is alluded to in the Talmud, and there is 
evidence that it was grown in the vaUey of the Euphrates and in Syria 
before 400 B. C. It was taken into Persia from India, and later into 
Spain by the Arabs. Tlience its culture was introduced into Italy about 
1468 A. D. The Spaniards are also responsible for its introduction 
into Peru and other sections of Spanish America during the early 
colonial period, but the exact date has not been definitely deter- 
mined. Padre Calancha, in his ''Cronica Morahzada," published in 
1639, mentions rice as among the products of the Zana district in 
Peru, but it was not until the latter part of the seventeenth century 
that it was grown to an appreciable extent. 

The first introduction of rice culture in the Americas seems reaUy 
to have been in Brazil. Numerous references in the works of the 
older Brazilian writers, as well as casual mention of rice fields in 
official records, would indicate that this cereal was cultivated in 
certain sections of the country even in the sixteenth century. For 
instance, in his "Memorias para a Historia da Capitania de Sao 
Vicente," Frei Gaspar Madre de Deus, referring to the sugar factories 
which were in operation in Sao Vicente during the years 1550-1557, 
writes: ''The ordinary price of an arroba of refined sugar was 400 reis; 
and rice in the husk sold for 50 reis the alqueire, according to the 
books and writers of that time; also according to these, everyone 
was occupied in raising these two products." Again, in a survey of 
Sesmaria Husayhy, situated on the right bank of the Ribeira River 
near its mouth, made in 1631, a dividing line between these lands 
and those of Antonio Serao "passed close to a small coffee plantation 
and farther on through the middle of a rice field." In 1692 a Capt. 
Martin Garcia Lumbria, in order to favor the gold mining industry 
of the region, arbitrarily fixed the price of two food products, man- 
dioca and rice, at such a low figure that in an official statement 
issued the next year we read: "The farmers so reduced the plantations 
of rice and mandioca as to have only enough to sustain their own 
families." From all of which we may infer that the cultivation of 
rice had become an established industry in Brazil by the middle of 





RICE CULTURE IN BRAZIL. 

Top: An irrigated rice field near tlie Moreira Cesar station on tlie Central Railway of Brazil, State of 
Sao Paulo, about midway between Rio de .Taneiro and the city of Sao Paulo. It was here that rice 
culture by means of scientific irrigation was introduced into Brazil by Mr. Welman Bradford, an 
American expert employed by Sao Paulo in 1907 to teach modern methods of cultivation and harvest- 
ing in that State. Bottom: Conveying water for irrigating certain sections of rice lands in Brazil by 
means of elevated sluices. The introduction of modern devices has increased the production of rice 
in that country to such an extent that importation has grown less each year, so that now very little 
is imported. 



87313—17- 



10 RICE IN THE AMERICAS. 

the seventeenth century and was doubtless started as early as the 
sixteenth. 
' In the United States, according to the late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, 
of the United States Department of Agriculture, rice is said to have 
been cultivated in Virginia by Sir WiUiam Berkley as early as 1647. 
He states, however, that no particulars are given, except that from 
a half bushel of seed planted the product was 16 bushels. Dr. Knapp 
also quotes another account, taken from Ramsay's History of South 
Carohna, which states that "An English or Dutch ship, homeward 
bound from Madagascar, was driven by stress of weather to seek 
shelter in the harbor of Charleston, and the captain seized the oppor- 
tunity to visit an old acquaintance, the landgrave and governor of 
the Province, Thomas Smith, whom he had already met in Mada- 
gascar. Smith expressed the desire to experiment with the growing 
of rice upon a low, moist patch of ground in his garden, similar to 
the ground upon which he had seen rice growing in Madagascar, 
whereupon the captain preseiited him with a small bag of rice seed 
which happened to be among the ship's stores. The seed was planted 
in a garden in Longitude Lane, Charleston, the spot being still pointed 
out." This event is said to have occurred in 1694. 

From the time of its introduction until about 1880 the greatest 

rice producing areas were in the States of South Carohna, North 

^ Carolina, and Georgia, while limited amounts were also grown in 

^^ Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In recent years the 

industry has received its greatest development in Louisiana, Texas, 

and Arkansas, and these three States now produce about 95 per 

cent of the entire product of the United States. The reasons for 

this remarkable progress in rice culture in these States are to be 

, found in the pecuHar soil conditions and the enormous acreage 

/ adapted to irrigation, jconditions which wiU be more particularly 

noted hereafter in dealing with the methods of producing the cereal. 

The rice plant is an annual which belongs, as its botanical name 

Oryza sativa would indicate, to the natural family of grasses. It is 

extensively cultivated in India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Brazil, 

Peru, the southern section of the United States, Italy, and Spain. 

It is also cultivated to a less extent in the countries of Central America, 

in Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas. 

The plant varies in height from 1 to 6 feet, and there are many 

hundreds of cultivated varieties. These differ in the size, shape, 

and color of the grain produced as well as in the relative proportion 

of food constituents and flavor. A botanical catalogue enumerates 

161 varieties found in Ceylon alone, while in China, Japan, and India,. 

where the cereal has been cultivated for so many centuries and where 

care has been taken to improve varieties by seed selection, no less 

than 1,400 varieties are said to exist. It requires for ripening a 




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12 RICE IN THE AMERICAS. 

temperature of from 60° to 80° F., and in general can be grown 
successfully and in large quantities only on irrigable lands. Upland 
rice, while still grown in some places, is an uncertain crop that requires 
laborious cultivation, so that in comparison with the irrigated varie- 
ties of the lowlands its production is in negligible quantities. 

Rice is the characteristic grain crop of the plains in the monsoon 
area of the tropical and subtropical parts of southeastern Asia. 
The varieties which are most abundantly produced demand not 
only a high summer temperature but also must be grown in fields 
capable of being flooded at certain stages of the plant's growth. It 
is these conditions which are offered in the great river deltas and 
low-lying areas near the seashore subject to inundation during the 
summer rains. The fields in which rice is grown are embanked to 
retain the water as long as required and are either naturally very 
level or made so artificially. Where the rains or overflow of the 
rivers are not sufficient to inundate the fields, the necessary water 
must be furnished by irrigation. The physical characteristics and 
climatic conditions needed for the successful growth of the rice 
plant are to be found in many of the tropical and subtropical sections 
of the Americas, but the most extensive areas suitable for its pro- 
duction on a large scale are found in the Gulf States of the United 
States, especially in Louisiana and Texas; in the vast reaches of 
level lands in Brazil; in the Pacific coast sections of Peru and Ecuador; 
in the northern lowlands of Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas; 
and in the extensive and fertile plains of northern Argentina. 

To discuss the many interesting features of rice culture in detail is 
far beyond the scope of this sketch. Only a few of the most general 
factors that enter into the successful production of the plant can be 
touched. Those interested in such details as the precise character 
of soils, selection of seeds, plowing and preparation of the land, 
methods of planting, fertilizing, irrigation problems, thrashing, mill- 
ing, etc., details which differ widely in the various countries of pro- 
duction, are referred to recent publications of the agricultural 
departments of such countries. In the Americas, for instance, 
among such publications may be mentioned the various bulletins 
prepared for the United States Department of Agriculture by the 
late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, whose investigations in regard to rice 
culture extended over a period of perhaps 20 years and included a 
comprehensive and detailed study of the industry in China and 
Japan; in Brazil an excellent and comprehensive work on the subject 
by Dr. L. Granato, entitled "O Arroz," was published under the aus- 
pices of the "Ministerio da Agricultura, Industria e Commercio" in 
1914. In this scholarly production may be found a complete survey 
of the rice industry, including every phase from the most primitive 
methods to the most modern, from the preparation of the soil to the 




THE RICE INDUSTRY IN ARGENTINA. 

Top: Left, an Argentine rice plant; right, a rice mill at Aguillares, Tucuman. Center: Thrashing rice 
in an Argentine field. Bottom: Sacks of rough rice, or "paddy," ready for transportation to the mill. 



14 EICE IN THE AMERICAS. 

finished product of the best modem mills. In Peru the ''Boletin del 
Ministerio de Fomento/' published in August, 1916, gives an inter- 
esting sketch of the industry in that country, including its historical 
features as weU as its present status, and embracing statistics in 
regard to acreage, production, etc., of the various plantations to be 
found in the Republic. 

In general terms it may be stated that the best soil for rice is a 
medium loam, containing about 50 per cent of clay. This allows the 
presence of sufficient humus for the highest fertility without decreas- 
ing too much the compact nature of the soil. The alluvial lands 
along the banks of rivers in tropical and subtropical countries, where 
they can be drained, are well adapted to rice cultivation. Occa- 
sionally such lands are too sandy. The rich drift soils of the Louisiana 
and Texas prairies in the United States are wonderfully adapted to 
the growth of rice. These soils are underlain with clay, which retains 
the water as long as desired, while the sand is exceedingly fine. They 
also have about the right proportion of potash, phosphoric acid, and 
other essential mineral elements, with humus, to make them lastingly 
productive. It would seem that the best rice lands must be thus 
underlain by a semi-impervious subsoil in order that the land may be 
drained at the time of the harvest, and thus permit the use of modern 
harvesting machinery. 

In some localities tidal deltas of rivers have been found to furnish 
excellent rice lands. Much of the rice formerly grown in South Car- 
olina and Georgia in the United States was produced on such areas. 
A body of land along some river and sufficiently remote from the sea 
to be free from actual salt water is selected with reference to the fea- 
sibility of being flooded from the river at high tide and of being drained 
at low tide. Lands such as these are also found in Louisiana and are 
being extensively utilized for rice growing. In some places marshes 
are found on what may be termed "high land" and, where they can 
be easily drained and again flooded from near-by streams, form 
excellent rice plantations. 

The rice growers of the United States have been remarkably suc- 
cessful in the cultivation of this cereal, and it may not be amiss to 
give a brief outline of their methods as described by Dr. Knapp in a 
bulletin published in 1910. The size of the fields depends on cir- 
cumstances, chief among which are the slope of the land and the 
character of the soil as regards drainage. Fields range in size from 
60 to 80 acres on the level prairies of southwestern Louisiana down 
to 1 or 2 acres along the banks of the Mississippi River, In oriental 
countries fields seldom contain more than half an acre. The entire 
surface of the field should be nearly at the same level, so that the 
irrigation water wiU stand at about the same depth. Hence where 
the slope of the surface is considerable the fields must be small. 






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Courtesy of the Bureau of Plant Industry. United States Department of Agriculture. 

THE RICE INDUSTRY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Upper: Typical rice field, showing the irrigating canal. Lower: Hauling the cut rice from the field to 

the thrasher. 



16 RICE IN THE AMERICAS. 

Whether small or large, the fields must be laid off in such a manner 
as to admit of effective drainage. 

In coast-marsh and river-bottom culture a canal is excavated on the 
outer rim of the tract selected, completely inclosing it. The exca- 
vated dirt is thrown up on the outer bank to form a levee. The canal 
must be of sufficient capacity for irrigation and drainage. The levee 
must be sufficient not only to inclose the flooding water but to pro- 
tect the fields from the encroachment of the river at all seasons. 
When practicable the rice lands are flooded from the river and find 
drainage by a canal or subsidiary stream that enters the river at a 
lower level. The embankment must be sufficient to protect the rice 
against either freshets or salt water. Freshets are injurious to grow- 
ing rice not only because of the volume of water but by reason of its 
temperature. A great body of water descending rapidly from the 
mountains to the sea is several degrees colder than water under ordi- 
nary flow. Such water admitted to the field retards the growth and 
is a positive injury to the crop. In periods of continued drought the 
salt water of the sea frequently ascends the rivers a considerable dis- 
tance; and, while slightly brackish water is not injurious, very salt 
water is destructive to rice. 

The tract of land selected and inclosed is then out up by smaller 
canals mto subfields of suitable size, a small levee being thrown up 
on the borders of each. The entire tract is usually level, but in case 
of any inequality care must be taken that the surface of each sub- 
field be level. The main canal is 10 to 30 feet wide, about 4 feet 
deep, and connects with the river by flood gates. Through these 
canals boats have ready access to the entire circuit of the tract, 
while still smaller boats can pass along the subcanals to the several 
fields. The subcanals are usually from 6 to 10 feet wide and should 
be about as deep as the main canal. 

Rice lands are usually plowed a short time before planting time, 
and in some parts of southern Louisiana the land is so low and wet 
and the soil so stiff as to necessitate plowing in the water. Deep 
plowing is recommended by leading rice experts. It has been dem- 
onstrated that the better the soil and the more thoroughly it is pul- 
verized the better the crop. The roots of annual cultivated plants 
do not feed much below the plow line; it is therefore evident that 
deep cultivation places more food within reach of the plant. If the 
soil is weU drained deep plowing will be found profitable. The plow 
should be followed in a short time by the disk harrow and then by 
the smoothing harrow. If the land is allowed to remain in furrows 
for any considerable time it will bake and can not be brought into 
that fine tilth so necessary to the best seed conditions. If the best 
results are desired it will be advisable to follow the harrow with a 
heavy roller. The roller will crush the lumps, make the soil more 



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18 EICE IN THE AMERICAS. 

compact, and conserve the moisture for germinating the grain, ren- 
dering it unnecessary to flood for ' 'sprouting." 

The amount of rice sown per acre varies in different sections and 
with different methods of sewing, from 1 to 3 bushels per acre being 
used. In the United States three different methods of treating the 
seed are followed. Some planters let on just enough water to satu- 
rate the ground immediately after sowing and harrowmg and at once 
draw off any surplus water. This insures germination of the seed. 
Others sow and trust to there being enough moisture in the land to 
germinate the seed. This is sometimes uncertain and rarely produces 
the best results. A few planters sprout the seed before planting by 
placing bags of seed rice in water, but this is sure to prove a failure 
if the soil is very dry when planting. The seed is usually planted 
with a drill. It is thus more equally distributed and the quantity 
used per acre is exact, while the seeds wiU be planted at a uniform 
depth and the earth packed over them by the driU roller. Broadcast 
sowing is the method still in vogue in many places, but is found much 
less efficient for many reasons. 

Except where water is necessary for germination of the seed, flood- 
ing is not practiced until the rice is 6 to 8 inches high. If rains are 
abundant enough to keep the soil moist, flooding is not begun until 
the plants are 8 inches high. At the time they have reached that 
height a sufficient depth of water can be allowed on the field to pre- 
vent scalding. If the growing crop thoroughly shades the land, just 
enough water to keep the soil saturated suffices. To be safe, how- 
ever, for all portions of the field, the water should stand from 3 to 6 
inches deep, and to avoid stagnation should be renewed by a con- 
tinuous inflow and outflow. A flow of water through the field aids 
in keeping the body of the water cool and in preventing the growth 
of injurious plants that thrive in stagnant water. The water should 
stand at uniform depth all over the field. Unequal depths of water 
will cause the crop to ripen at different times. Where the lands are 
sufficiently level and have good drainage, the tillering of rice can be 
greatly facilitated by keeping the soil saturated with water but not 
allowing enough to cover the surface. In this way the crop is fre- 
quently nearly double what it would be if allowed to grow dry until 
tall enough to flood or if flooded before fully tillered. Rice should 
be cut when the straw has barely commenced to yellow. If the 
cutting is delayed till the straw shows yeUow to the top, the grain 
is reduced in quahty and quantity and the straw is less valuable. 
There is also a considerable loss by shelhng in handhng in the field. 

In the United States reaping machines are generaUy used in the 
prairie districts of Louisiana and Texas, but in other rice-producing 
sections such machines can be used only to a limited extent. The 
principal obstacle to the use of large and heavy machinery is that 



20 RICE IN THE AMERICAS. 

the ground is not sufficiently dry and firm at harvest time, while 
often the field is too small to permit of its use. Where the use of 
reaping machines is impracticable, the sickle is used in harvesting 
the rice crop. The rice is cut at 6 to 12 inches from the ground, 
and the cut grain is laid upon the stubble to keep it off the wet soil 
and to allow the air to circulate about it. After a day's curing the 
grain is removed from the field, bound in small bundles, and then 
shocked on dry ground, the bundles being carefully braced against 
each other so as to resist wind or storm. The rice is left in the shock 
until the straw is cured and the kernels have become hard. When 
the weather is dry, 10 or 12 days after cutting is sufficient for com- 
pletely curing the grain. 

After the grain is cured it is thrashed. The primitive methods of 
"fiailing," "treading out," etc., have been abandoned in the pro- 
gressive rice-producing countries and the steam thrasher has come 
into general use. After coming from the thrasher the rice must be 
thoroughly dried before being sacked. At this stage it is known as 
"paddy" or "rough rice," consisting of the grain proper with its 
closely fitting cuticle roughly inclosed by the stiff, hard husk. It is 
now ready to be milled. The object of milling is to produce cleaned 
rice by removing the husk and cuticle and polishing the surface of the 
grain. The hulls or chaff constitute from 12 to 25 per cent of the 
weight of the paddy, depending upon the variety and condition. 

The improved modern processes of milling rice are quite compli- 
cated. The paddy is first screened to remove trash and foreign par- 
ticles. The hulls, or chaff, are removed by rapidly revolving milling 
stones set about two-thirds of the length of a rice grain apart. The 
product goes over horizontal screens and blowers, which separate the 
light chaff from the whole or broken kernels. To remove the outer 
skin the grain is put in huge mortars holding from 4 to 6 bushels each 
and pounded with pestles weighing 350 to 400 pounds, which not- 
withstanding their weight seldom break the kernels. When suffi- 
ciently decorticated, the contents of the mortars, consisting now of 
flour, fine chaff, and clean rice of a dull filmy, creamy color, are 
removed to the flour screens, where the flour is sifted out; thence to 
the fine-chaff fan, where the chaff is blown out. The rice then goes 
to the cooling bins, where it remains for 8 or 9 hours, and then passes 
to the brush screens where the smallest rice and the little flour left 
pass down one side and the larger rice grains down the other. 

The grain is now ready for the polishing process. This is necessary 
to give it its pearly luster. It is effected by friction against the rice 
of moose hide or sheepskin, tanned and worked to a high degree of 
softness, loosely tacked about a revolving cylinder of wood and wire 
gauze. From the polishers the rice goes to the separating screens, 




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22 RICE IlSr THE AMERICAS. 

composed of different sizes of gauze, where it is divided into its 
appropriate grades. It is then barreled and is ready for the market. 

As a food rice is nutritious and very easily digested. Boiled rice 
for instance, is said to be digestible in one hour. As to its food 
value in comparison with wheat flour analyses show that 100 pounds 
of cleaned rice contains 87.7 pounds of nutrients, consisting of 8 
pounds of protein, 0.3 pound fat, 79 pounds of carbohydrates, and 
0.4 pound of ash; 100 pounds of wheat flour contain 87.2 pounds of 
nutrients, consisting of 10.8 pounds protein, 1.1 pounds fat, 74.8 
pounds carbohydrates, and 0.4 pound ash. The deficiency of 
albuminoids and fats can easily be supplied from the milk or meat 
gravies with which it is usually eaten, or from leguminous vegetables 
such as peas, beans, etc. 

The popularity of rice as one of the staple articles of diet in the 
countries comprising the Pan American Union is attested by their 
annual imports of the cereal. When it is remembered that rice is 
grown to a greater or less extent in almost all of them, the following 
statistics as to the imports of the countries enumerated are somewhat 
surprising. Only the values of the imports are given, and these, 
with the exceptions noted, are for the year 1915; statements as 
to quantities are omitted because unavailable in some instances, 
while in others varying weights and measures were used. Argen- 
tina, $1,972,426; Bolivia (1913), $175,699; Brazil, $529,861; Chile, 
$1,106,187; Colombia, $800,697; Costa Rica, $108,649; Cuba, 
$8,304,579; Dominican Repubhc, $908,876; Ecuador (not segre- 
gated in report); Guatemala, $34,129; Haiti (1,773,252 pounds im- 
ported, value not given); Honduras, $112,627; Mexico (1912-13), 
$40,677; Nicaragua, $145,550; Panama (1914), $350,903; Paraguay 
(1914), $92,676; Peru, $603,700; Salvador (not segregated in re- 
port); United States, $6,093,611; Uruguay, $440,000; Venezuela, 
$621,797. It will be seen, therefore, that with three countries 
omitted the annual imports of rice in Pan America amount to a 
total value of about $22,442,644. 

As to the production of the cereal in the Americas, it may be said 
that it is increasing rapidly in several of the countries where modern 
methods of cultivation, harvesting, and miUing have been intro- 
duced. In the United States a remarkable increase was shown last 
year. The production of 1915 had broken the record with a total of 
28,947,000 bushels, exceeding that of any previous year by over 
3,000,000 bushels, but when the statistics for the year 1916 were re- 
cently completed it was fomid that the crop had reached a total of 
41,982,000 bushels. The country's rice imports for the year ending 
June 30, 1916, amounted to the value of $6,093,611, while its exports 
of the cereal amounted to $4,942,373. It may be safely assumed, 



EICE IN THE AMERICAS, 23 

therefore, that the industry has reached the point in the United 
States where production will very nearly equal actual consumption. 
In point of production as well as in the matter of improved methods 
and extent of area devoted to rice culture, Brazil may be ranked sec- 
ond among the American rice-producing countries. Largely because 
of the intelligent efforts of the Ministerio da Agricultura, Industria e 
Commercio, the rice industry has grown wonderfully in that Republic 
within the last six or seven years. Extensive areas are being cul- 
tivated under modern systems of irrigation and with modern imple- 
ments and agricultural machinery. The most marked development 
has taken place in the States of Minas Geraes, Sao Paulo, Eio Grande 
do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, and Santa Catharina. In these five States 
the production for the year 1911 was placed by Dr. Granato at a 
total of 556,982,700 litros, or about 15,823,372 bushels. While later 
statistics are not yet available to the writer, it may be safely assumed 
that the figures for 1916 will show a tremendous increase. In this 
connection it may be of interest to note that in a recent consular 
report from Rio de Janeiro, relative to the establishment of a new 
Hne of steamers from Japan to Brazil, appears the following paragraph: 

It is stated that the first steamer, of 6,000 tons register, will leave Japan next Feb- 
ruary, and in addition to special cargo will bring 900 emigrants. According to arrange- 
ments which it is said have been made, Japan is to send every year, beginning next 
February, 5,000 immigrants to be employed in accordance with the regulations of the 
national authorities in the cultivation of rice, beans, potatoes, onions, and coffee. 

Just what effect the importation of Japanese laborers, many of 
whom are experienced growers of the cereal, will have on the rice 
industry remains to be seen. If they are to be colonized or given 
employment in the rice-growing areas, the effect will doubtless be a 
great increase in the area cultivated and in the amount of annual 
production. With millions of acres of level land traversed by many 
rivers of varying size that minimize the difficulties of irrigation, with a 
weU-adapted soil and an almost ideal climate, there is almost no limit 
to the successful production of rice in Brazil, and the day is probably 
not far distant when it will form one of the country's most important 
exports. 

Argentina has also recently turned its attention to the development 
of the rice industry. Two or three years ago a Japanese expert was 
employed by the Argentine Government to make a general survey of 
the country in regard to locating the sections best adapted to rice 
culture, to conduct experiments and to teach the best methods of 
cultivation, and to improve generally the status of the industry. At 
present the development is greatest perhaps in the Provinces of Tucu- 
man, Corrientes, Salta, and Jujuy, and in the Territory of Misiones. The 
production of the country has increased from 5,250,300 kilos (about 
11,550,660 pounds) in 1911 to over 12,000,000 kilos (about 26,400,000 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




24 EICE IN THE AMEEICAS. 

000 935 476 

pounds) in 1916. The Ministry of Agriculture is activeij cuoperaimg 

with the rice growers and is stimulating the industry in every way 
possible. At its instance, selected varieties of seed have been 
imported from China, Japan, Italy, and Spain in order that systematic 
experiment may determine the varieties best suited to the needs of 
the Argentine growers; it has acted as an intermediary between the 
mill owners and growers in order to secure satisfactory terms and 
arrangements for preparing the product for the markets; and largely 
because of its activities the great Banco de la Nacion stands ready to 
lend financial assistance to both millers and growers. 

In Peru the rice industry dates back for several centuries, but it is 
only during the past few years that the people have begun to realize 
its possibilities and to appreciate that it may be made a very impor- 
tant factor in their national life. Ancient methods of planting and 
cultivation are being discarded and modern appliances are rapidly 
being brought into use, while modern rice mills are also being estab- 
lished. The annual production for the past several years has been 
from 70,000,000 to 100,000,000 pounds, and through the efforts of 
the Ministerio de Fomento is increasing. 

Mexico, the Central American countries, Ecuador, Colombia, Vene- 
zuela, and the island Republics of Cuba, Dominican Republic, and 
Haiti all produce rice for domestic consumption, but accurate sta- 
tistics are not available. That they do not produce as much as they 
should is evidenced by the import statistics heretofore given. In 
view of the fact that rice is a cheap, wholesome, palatable, and very 
nutritious food, it is remarkable that so little attention has been given 
to its production in some of the countries that are blessed with suit- 
able lands, proper soils, and ideal climates. It is to be hoped that 
the people of these countries may be more fully aroused to the great 
importance of this industry and that they will produce at least suf- 
ficient quantities to meet the demands of domestic consumption. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




000 935 476 1 



